Point 4 – Interview Booth
The final point was an opportunity to interview artists/artist parents/creatives to see if there were any commonalities in there response to the previous questions and ask them specifically about their professional development needs. This is an area I want to expand on which requires me to gather more responses through an emailed survey.
Generally the artists selected FUNDED MAKE NETWORK
What would be your no.1 Professional Development need at your artist residency?
Some examples:
Exhibiting work publicly
Critique of ideas from an artist peer or curator
Time and space for discovery
Inspiration
Cultural Exchange
Research & Development
Develop a meaningful art practice-exchange
Overall the individual artists professional development needs are very different to each other, which would need a personalised and supportive approach from the residency facilitator to realise. One fit will not suit all artists. Listening back to the artist parent interviews it is clear that they need flexible residency structures to be able to participate in this activity.
Finally the artist was asked if a 1 night over stay residency would be of interest and why?
All participants responded with YES.
Some responses:
This would work for me as I have children and I could manage that in the evening.
Anything different and creative to spark inspiration is worth doing.
It would still be worthwhile to gain the experience, and gain any relevant networks/skills/opportunities to engage with others on many levels.
I could do that now with a young baby but what would I get out of it?
I’d be open to doing a shorter over-stay residency but I’m wondering what purpose it could serve.
I emailed a short evaluation to the ‘Explainers’ who worked at the event.
What was memorable for you from the event?
The sense of taking people on a journey and how people got involved in the idea of being on a residency through that performative idea.
It was great to have the opportunity to talk to different people (ages and professional backgrounds). Those who I spoke to understood the notion of a residency even if they didn’t class themselves as an artist or creative. What struck me is that most people who didn’t class themselves as an artist could easily benefit from a residency period (one Mum collected driftwood and natural materials to create bespoke up-cycled pieces for an art market and homeschooled her children, another was a writer wrote a blog for somebody else (and not having as much creative freedom and time to experiment. Another Mum talked about the difficulties for women continuing their professional lives/business as opposed to men and how having children could be a barrier to doing something like a residency (lack of childcare, free medical facilities abroad).
To see my own family go through the guided tour and put themselves in the shoes of an artist engaging in an artist residency opportunity (my husband and 2 kids aged 5 and 3 (and to have actually offered them that tour). This gave me an idea of how they might respond in future potential residencies that I may come across.
Any other comments about the day?
Great to see such a wide and varied response from people of all walks of life.
Was great to be involved and to help people to engage in the process.
It was an interesting event to be a part of, particularly in relation to the context of the Clore Art Studio, being placed near gallery spaces. Most people were visiting the galleries to view art and objects or to find a space to engage their children (away from the commercial parts of the city centre). I think more space could and should be given for gallery visitors /members of the public to meet real ‘local’, practising artists to dispel the myths and stereotypes about what an artist does and who an artist is.
